In recent years, the advancement in emergency medical procedures has required ambulances to be equipped with the latest in technology. This equipment has required the cargo area of the ambulance to be mounted onto a larger vehicle chassis which has resulted in the floor of the cargo area of the ambulance to be further elevated above the ground than had been the case in the past. The higher elevated floors in the cargo area of the ambulance has necessitated ambulance attendants to lift the front or head end of the ambulance cot so that the load wheels would then rest on the elevated floor surface to enable the attendants to thereafter roll the cot into the cargo area. In many situations, the weight of the patient on the ambulance cot is heavy and back injuries and the like are a frequent injury suffered by the ambulance attendants.
Accordingly, the provision of an ambulance cot with a load wheel assisting device is highly desirable in the field.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,085 represents one way of accomplishing an assist to the load wheels on an ambulance cot and the subject matter thereof is incorporated herein by reference.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an ambulance cot load wheel assisting device which includes a frame mounted on the ambulance cot which supports, in addition to the load wheel, a load wheel assisting device to effect a lifting of the axis of rotation of the load wheel to a location above the floor surface of the cargo area of the ambulance.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an ambulance cot load wheel assisting device, as aforesaid, which is manually set to a load position prior to entry of the ambulance cot into the cargo area of the ambulance.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an ambulance cot load wheel assisting device, as aforesaid, wherein the aforesaid manual setting or positioning of the assisting device is held thereat by one of a detent mechanism or a spring mechanism.